Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: How Can This Korean Apartment be so Expensive? Eric here.
Suhyun: 안녕하세요. (Annyeonghaseyo.) I'm Suhyun.
Eric: In this lesson, you will learn how to express reasons in Korean. This conversation takes place at an apartment complex.
Suhyun: It's between Sujin and a real estate agent.
Eric: The speakers are not familiar with each other, so they’ll be using honorific Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

부동산업자: 이 아파트는 어때요?
수진: 매우 넓어서 좋아요. 월세는 얼마예요?
부동산업자: 여기 월세는 없어요. 전세만 있어요.
수진: 전세값은 얼마예요?
부동산업자: 전세는 6,000만원이에요.
수진: 너무 비싸네요.
부동산업자: 비싸지만 여기 동네가 좋아요.
Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
부동산업자: 이 아파트는 어때요?
수진: 매우 넓어서 좋아요. 월세는 얼마예요?
부동산업자: 여기 월세는 없어요. 전세만 있어요.
수진: 전세값은 얼마예요?
부동산업자: 전세는 6,000만원이에요.
수진: 너무 비싸네요.
부동산업자: 비싸지만 여기 동네가 좋아요.
Eric: Now, listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Real Estate Agent: What do you think of this apartment?
Sujin: I like that it's spacious. How much is the monthly rent?
Real Estate Agent: There’s no monthly rent here. There’s a jeonse fee.
Sujin: Then how much is the Jeonse fee?
Real Estate Agent: The Jeonse fee is 60 million won.
Sujin: That's very expensive.
Real Estate Agent: It’s expensive because the neighborhood is nice.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: The lease system for apartments in Korea is very different from other countries.
Suhyun: Right. It’s called 전세
Eric: This is a deposit based system which means that when an individual enters into a lease, they provide a large sum deposit upfront. But Suhyun, what do they do about monthly rent in Korea?
Suhyun: Under the Jeonse system, there’s no monthly rent. Instead, the owner of the apartment invests the deposit paid by the tenant and takes the interest generated by the deposit.
Eric: I guess that’s why the “lease price” for apartments in Korea is so expensive and takes years to save for.
Suhyun: Yes, but actually many people prefer 전세, “lease” over 월세, “monthly rent” because they can get the full amount of the money back after the contract expires, usually in two years.
Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is...
Suhyun: 아파트 [natural native speed]
Eric: apartment
Suhyun: 아파트 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 아파트 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 월세 [natural native speed]
Eric: monthly rent
Suhyun: 월세 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 월세 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 매우 [natural native speed]
Eric: very, a lot
Suhyun: 매우 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 매우 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 전세 [natural native speed]
Eric: lease (deposit-based)
Suhyun: 전세 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 전세 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 너무 [natural native speed]
Eric: very, very much, so
Suhyun: 너무 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 너무 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 동네 [natural native speed]
Eric: neighborhood
Suhyun: 동네 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 동네 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 값 [natural native speed]
Eric: price
Suhyun: 값 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 값 [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Suhyun: 만 (ten thousand) [natural native speed]
Eric: ten thousand
Suhyun: 만 (ten thousand) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Suhyun: 만 (ten thousand) [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Eric: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is..
Suhyun: 전세
Eric: which means “lease.”
Suhyun: In the dialogue, we also had the word 월세, which means “monthly rent”. Both words share the same 세 (se) character, which essentially means “money exchanged for something else.”
Eric: I see. Let’s look more closely at the word meaning “lease.”
Suhyun: 전세 is made of two words, the first being 전, which means “all,” as in paying “all” of the money before you move into the house.
Eric: But this will be refunded after the contract period expires, right?
Suhyun: Yes. Unlike 월세 or “monthly pay” you can get all of your deposit back when you move out of the house.
Eric: I see. So how would you use this word in a sentence?
Suhyun: For example, if you want to ask about a contract, you could say 전세 계약은 언제까지예요?
Eric: “How long is the contract for the lease?” or literally “Until when the contract for the lease is?”
Suhyun: On the TV news, you may also hear.. 전세값이 서서히 상승하고 있습니다.
Eric: “The price of house leases is steadily rising.” Okay, what's the next word?
Suhyun: 동네
Eric: which means “neighborhood”, “town” or “village”. For example, the phrase...
Suhyun: 부모님하고 같은 동네에서 살고 있어요.
Eric: means “I live in the same neighborhood as my parents.” Can you give us an example using this word?
Suhyun: Sure. For example, you can say.. 동네 아줌마들이 먹을 것을 많이 갖다 줬어요.
Eric: .. which means “The women in the neighborhood brought many things to eat.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about reasons in Korean.
Suhyun: The pattern is simple. First say the verb-stem, then say 아서 which means “because.”
Eric: You can translate it as “because…” or “...so” with the result coming after it. For example, how can we say..“because it’s okay.” as in “I bought it because it’s okay”?
Suhyun: 괜찮아서. 괜찮다 is the verb meaning “to be all right,” or “to be okay”. and the verb stem is… 괜찮. Here, you can simply add the word 아서 to make 괜찮아서. 괜찮아서.
Eric: “because it’s okay.” or “because it's all right…” This grammatical structure indicates the cause or reason for a consequence. Then, you can say the consequence, for example..
Suhyun: 괜찮아서 샀어요.
Eric: “I bought it because it’s all right.”
Suhyun: But you can use 아서 only when the vowel in the last syllable of the verb-stem ends with ㅏ and ㅗ.
Eric: Hmm, this sounds a bit complicated.
Suhyun: You just need to look at the verb-stem 괜찮 for example. 찮 is the last syllable of the verb-stem and it has the vowel ㅏ. In that case, you can use 아서.
Eric: Okay, then what are the other cases?
Suhyun: If the verb-stem ends in ㅓ, ㅜ, ㅣ, ㅡ, you need to use 어서 instead. For example, if you want to use 마시다 which means “to drink” as a reason, you need to say 마시어서 or in natural way, 마셔서.
Eric: “because I drink.” So the correct word changes based on the last vowel in the verb-stem, right?
Suhyun: That’s right. 마시 is the verb-stem of the verb 마시다 meaning “to drink.” The last syllable of 마시 is 시, and the vowel here is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So you need to add 어서, making the correct formation 마시어서.
Eric: Using this, we can make a sentence like “I feel tired because I drank alcohol” right?
Suhyun: Yes, in Korean, that would be 술을 마셔서 피곤해요. In Korean, it sounds more natural to keep the reason, for example, 술을 마셔서 in the present-tense, even though it happened in the past.
Eric: I see.
Suhyun: And actually, we have one more. When the verb you want to use is 하다, you need to use 해서 instead. For example, 공부해서
Eric: “because I study.”
Suhyun: 공부하다 uses the verb 하다 meaning “to do”. When you want to use this verb in stating a reason, you need to take out 하다 and replace it with 해서. This gives you 공부해서, meaning “because I study.”
Eric: Okay, can you give us a complete sentence?
Suhyun: Sure. 많이 공부해서 피곤해요.
Eric: “I feel tired because I studied a lot.” Remember listeners, we have more examples in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them out!

Outro

Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson and this series. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you in the next series! Bye!
Suhyun: 안녕히 계세요. (Annyeonghi gyeseyo.)

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